Chapter IV

Major Findings
Introduction
Based on the analysis and interpretation of the quantitative and qualitative data the
following findings are presented. The findings are presented in accordance with the
objectives and the hypotheses that are mentioned in chapter II of this study.

Respondent Profiles
Mean age of the respondents was 47 years and Standard deviation was 13 years. 26
per cent of the respondents were young. They were between the age group of 20 and
36 years. The older refugees in the age group of 57 to 87 were 24 per cent. About one
fourth of the respondents were women while 74 per cent of them were men. 72 per
cent of the respondents were married at the time of this study.

Three fourths ofthe respondents (72 %) were Hindus and 27 per cent were Christians

Most of the respondents (93 %) came to India in 1990. Almost all of them (97%)
never returned to their home country after leaving the country. A large number of
respondents (92%) spent 17 years in India as refugees. More than half the respondents
were of Sri Lankan origin. Only 45 per cent were oflndian origin.

Seventy four per cent of the respondents were married. 20 per cent of the respondents
were widowed. 6 per cent of the respondents were divorced, separated or remained
single.

Sixty nine per cent of the respondents did not have to change camps and have
remained in the same camps since they came. Almost all the respondents have
registration in the camp. Only 3 per cent do not have registration. Only 9 per cent of
the respondents have had their registration terminated while 91 per cent have never
had their registration terminated.

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Eighty nine per cent of the respondents have never thought about living outside the
camp. More than 90 per cent of them felt that they did not have the ability to the
manage expenses outside the camp

Almost all the respondents felt that there are no better livelihood opportunities outside
the camp. Only 2 per cent said that there were better opportunities outside.

Education
More than 40 per cent of the respondents had completed primary school education. 28
per cent had completed the middle school. A large number of respondents' children
(57%) went to the government schools. Only 24 per cent went to private schools.
About 42 per cent of the respondents felt that the quality of their children's education
was good

A majority of the respondents (60%) felt that there the facilities available in the
schools were good to some extent. About 61 per cent of the respondents said that had
the teachers were committed and interested in the refugee children.

Thirty eight per cent of the children traveled between one and three kilometers to go
to school. Another 26 per cent had to travel more than five kilometers to reach the
school.

Occupation
Of the respondents interviewed 72 per cent were working. Among them 70 per cent
were unskilled workers. 32 per cent of the respondents were not familiar with their
jobs when they started it and 17 per cent had some exposure to the work already. It
was significant to learn that the respondents were familiar with at least 57 types of
jobs.

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One fourth of the refugees found it difficult to find a job because those who hired
them were suspicious as they were Sri Lankans. About half the respondents (49 %)
felt that there was a positive response when they tried to find a job. A majority of the
respondents (57%) got their jobs through referrals. More than 70 per cent of the
respondents worked between five and eight hours

The respondents (74%) said that they had to travel between 10 and 100 kilometers to
reach their place of work. Despite the fact that 62 per cent never overstayed in their
place of work 86 per cent were unable to answer the roll call every month.

Another 86 per cent did not feel that they were vulnerable to termination in their jobs
and 95 per cent have never had their registration terminated because of their work.

Problems with camp authorities was something that the respondents had to put up
with. However, 68 per cent do not have any problem with them.

Almost all the respondents (98 %) said that they did not want migrate to the Middle
East to work.

Of the respondents that worked in the Middle East, 49 per cent felt that they were not
exploited while working there. About 92 per cent said that they got back to India from
the Middle East due to other reasons.

Twenty three per cent had tried some kind of self employment. Out of that, 13 per
cent had tried small business. A little less than half (4 7 %) of the respondents said that
they were able to sustain the self employment to some extent. However 70 per cent
were unable to try self employment due to lack of ability to invest. 30 per cent
borrowed money from money lenders while only 17 per cent took a loan from the
bank for the self employment.

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More than 60 per cent were happy with the procedures for obtaining a loan. 28 per
cent said that they were not able to repay the loan, while 65 per cent repaid the loan
on time.

Food Subsidy
Seventy eight per cent of the respondents always bought the full quantity of rations
given by the government of Tamil Nadu. Almost half the respondents (46%) felt that
the food subsidy was not at all sufficient for them. 63 per cent of the respondents felt
that the food received was neither good nor bad. But 18 per cent felt that it was good.

Sometimes when the rations did not arrive on time 60 per cent of the respondents
bought it from the local stores and 48 per cent borrowed from their neighbors to buy
the food.

Clothing
A majority of the respondents (57%) said that they bought clothes only on special
occasions. Almost all the respondents (92%) never used second hand clothes. A little
less than half the respondents (48 %) felt that they gained respect from other camp
members due to the clothes they wore.

Forty two per cent of the respondents said that they always provided children with
new uniforms. More than half the respondents (58 %) spent less than Rs. 500 on
clothes

Health
Improving the nutritional value was one of the most important ways to improve the
health situation according to the respondents. 63 per cent went to the hospital only
sometimes for treatment. About 45 per cent of the respondents preferred both
government and private hospitals for treatment. Yet, 45 per cent of the respondents
felt that there were better facilities available in the private hospitals. The private

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hospitals did not provide free or concessional treatment according to 74 per cent of
the respondents.

Since there were not adequate facilities 20 per cent of the respondents did not go to
the government hospital. People had to go to another city to seek treatment for serious
diseases

According to 45 per cent of the respondents they had to buy medicines from local
phannacies. About 60 per cent of the respondents borrowed money for medical
expenses.

Income
The mean family income was Rs 1926 with a standard deviation of Rs 1572. About
half the respondents (48 %) had a monthly family income between
Rs 1001 and Rs 3000 from all the sources such as doles, self employment and work.
Four per cent of the respondents had an income above Rs 5000.

Savings
Only 4 per cent of the respondents had been saving for more than five years. 33 per
cent of them had been saving for three to fi ve year~. A majority of the respondents
who had had a family income between 1001 and 3000 saved below Rs 100 per month.
At the same time, 44 per cent of the respondents who had less than Rs 1000 as family
income also saved below Rs 100 every month. The significant finding was that 56
per cent of those who had a family income above Rs 5001 saved below Rs l 00 per
month.

Forty nine per cent of the respondents saved less than Rs. 100 per month. 68 per cent
of the respondents who saved below Rs 100 saved their money with the Self help
groups. Forty two per cent of those who saved more than Rs 500 per month used the
services of the chit funds or private bankers.

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A few respondents also chose to buy jewelry and secure their money. Respondents
often saved money to help them during the festive season, to buy jewelry and for the
school fees of children. In spite of the conflict in Sri Lanka and the prevailing
uncertainty of their situation 84 per cent of the respondents felt that their savings were
not affected.

Managing Expenses
More than half the respondents (57%) felt that they were not able to manage their
expenses with their income. When they did not have enough money to manage their
expenses, they used alternates like taking a loan, trying to find other jobs or sought
help from relatives. 53 per cent of the respondents were not able to repay their loans
on time but 33 per cent are always able to repay their loans on time. However, 52 per
cent of the respondents received monetary support from friends and relatives when
there was urgent need.

Housing
Eighty two per cent of the respondents had between one and five members per family.
Most of the respondents (97 %) lived in kacha houses. Despite this fact 82 per cent of
the respondents did not have any problem with their housing. Only 30 per cent of the
respondents owned toilets while the others used open spaces.

Social life
Eighty per cent of the respondents claimed that there were no community conflicts
among them. Many of the respondents (72 %) did not have any problems caused by
the camp members that affected their livelihood.

Sixty five per cent were not affected by the camp sealing. Only 17 per cent were
affected were and unable to go to work. More than half of the respondents (51%) said

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that they had restrictions to work in the camp. Only 25 per cent said that there were
no restrictions

When there is a problem in Sri Lanka the camp life was affected, 26 per cent felt that
it created suspicion among others. Livelihoods of 10 per cent of the respondents were
greatly affected by the incidents in Sri Lanka. But 35 per cent said that it does not
affect them at all.

65 per cent of the respondents said that they were willing to return to Sri Lanka while
20 per cent did not want to go back. However 55 per cent said that they will return
only after a permanent settlement was reached.

Camps and Livelihood Scores

For 66 per cent of the respondents the camps offered a moderate livelihood. Camps
had preformed the best in the human capital domain with a score of 105/140. The
average score of the items of the domain was 21. It indicated that all the camps had
enough human resources. In the Social Capital domain, the camps scored a total of
104/140. The least scores were found in the economic domain scoring only 72/140.
The performance of the camps in the physical (85) and natural (94) domains were
moderate.

Livelihood Capitals
A large number of respondents (28%) had a high social life. There was low economic
status among 34 per cent of the respondents. More than one third (37 %) of the
respondents had high physical status. More number of respondents (38 %) had high
human capital. One fourth of the respondents (25%) had high livelihood scores. 29
per cent of the respondents had low quality of life.

While computing the individual camp scores it was found that Chinnar camp scored
the highest with a maximum score of 73. Thumbalahalli had a total score of 71 .

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Pambar camp scored the least with 54. Despite being located in a remote area devoid
of many facilities Nagavathy scored 62. Thoppiayar and Kesarkuli had same score of
67 and Vaniyar scored 66.

There was no significant association between the marital status and livelihood of the
respondents

Religion and Livelihood

Interestingly, among the Hindus it was found that more number of them had scored
high on livelihood when compared with the Christians.

Among the Hindus and Christians 49 per cent belonged to the medium livelihood
category. 31 per cent of the Hindu respondents scored high on livelihood and twenty
per cent of the respondents scored low on livelihood. Within the Christian
respondents, only 23 per cent scored high on livelihood category, while 28 per cent
scored low.

More respondents had scored high on livelihood irrespective of the fact whether they
were of Indian or Sri Lankan origin.

Income and Livelihood

Fifty two per cent of the respondents with no income had medium livelihood scores.
A majority (53 %) of the respondents with a income ranging between 1501 to 7500
also belonged to the medium category of livelihood scores. A little more than a third
of the respondents belonged to the family income between Rs 959 to Rs 2650. Within
this category, only 32 per cent of the respondents had high livelihood scores.

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Livelihood Strategies
The following livelihood strategies evolved in the process of the analysis of the study.
1. Receiving Humanitarian assistance
2. Acquiring new job skills and adapting to the new environment
3. Collaborative working
4. Engaging in jobs and trades
5. Relying on social networks
6. Monogamous occupations
7. Investing in education and skills training
8. Negative Coping Strategies
9. Adopting new gender roles
10. Marriage and livelihood
11. Risk taking

Livelihood and quality of life

There is a relationship between the social capital and quality of life of the
respondents. It was found that there was .a significant relationship between physical
capital and quality of life. The chi square test result indicated that there was a
significant relationship between livelihood and quality of life.

There is a positive association between human capital and livelihood of the

respondents.

Perceptions of living outside the camps

Eighty nine per cent of the respondents had never thought about living outside the
camps. 91 per cent of the respondents felt that they would not be able to manage the
expenses if they lived outside the camps. Finally a vast majority of the respondents
felt that livelihood opportunities were not better if they lived outside the camps.

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Perceptions of return
Sixty five per cent of the respondents expressed that they were willing to return
immediately. Twenty per cent of the respondents said that they were not at all willing
to return. 87 per cent of the respondents were willing to return. A majority of the
respondents (55 %) said that they would return after a permanent settlement was
reached. Considering the circumstances 13 per cent of the respondents said that they
would wish to stay back in India.

Conclusion
The fmdings of the study reveal demographic, sociological livelihood issues that
affect the refugees. From the above findings it can be inferred that the refugees were
doing well on an average. With a little bit of encouragement and conducive climate
for growth they will be able to prosper much better. During their long stay in India
they have acquired several skills. Despite doing well the desire to return to their home
land lies deep in their minds. When they return they hope to better their livelihood.

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